We’re driving so of course, the oil prices are at an all time high. It’s even worse because we’re taking D26’s car and it only takes premium gas.
1 Like
Yeah, I have a ton of United miles so I have been able to cash some in to make this trip more palatable. We are just starting to enjoy the benefits of the Hyatt loyalty program—my company is offering a perk that offers globalist level for 3 months and you can keep it for the year if you stay 10 nights within that 3 months. Between work trips and a recent trip to Mexico City with D22, I should be able to pull it off.
4 Likes
We are driving tomorrow to MN annd then flying to LA later this week. Even making these trips as economical as possible - it’s not cheap.
Update on the crazy conspiracy judge!! We think he was just seeing how she would do under pressure. He liked her presentation. She is still not thrilled with “the game” though!
6 Likes
As a Californian on the east coast at the moment these high gas prices here seem like a bargain. It is $6 a gallon at home. Thankfully, I mostly drive a solar powered EV at home.
5 Likes
Ugh I rented a car to get around! I’m guessing we won’t be driving much!
I feel for all of you traveling everywhere this month! I just spent an astronomical amount on a ticket for D22 to visit a grad school – but I booked the ticket the day before she flew, so, yeah. It was nuts. Hotel wasn’t bad, though, and she only stayed one night.
It was likewise going to cost us “all the monies” (as D26 likes to say, lol) to rent a minivan in Houston on Thursday, and return it in Atlanta on Tuesday. Good grief. So we’re not doing that – we’re renting something small and cheap while there, then getting the van on Sunday just to move D22’s stuff out of her dorm and get it home.
2 Likes
What airport are you flying into?
Oof - hearing all these travel/visit stories is rough! We’re somewhat lucky that all of our travel has been fairly local with just one overnight required. All the others are day driving distance.
We just finished another admitted students day at Rutgers. It was their HUGE admitted student open house event. I was sure that D26 was going to balk at the crowds and craziness, but, alas, she likes it. So it stays on the list! That’s both good and bad, of course, lol.
But she has started slowly eliminating colleges, so we’re down to just three in contention now. And the last admitted student day is a week from Monday, so there’s time to noodle on her decision a bit before seeing the last one.
Wishing everyone a good week and safe travels if you’re on the road (or in the air!)
7 Likes
I did a good number of visits with D24. Quite a few flights and hotel stays. S22 did fewer since Covid had a lot closed. S26 only visited one. It did involve a flight, hotel and car, but was pretty economical compared to D24 especially. I am considering that money saved to be a scholarship he has earned!
5 Likes
Burbank
In that case, the drive to Occidental is not that far. I love that airport. Can walk to rental cars from the terminal.
2 Likes
It’s a funky airport. Supposedly had some near miss mid air colisions. 10-12 in the last 10 years?
1 Like
Visit to St Olaf went well for my wife and son. They were overwhelmed with how genuinely kind and welcoming folks were. The MN stereotypes have some truth. Plus, the campus is lovely, and they’ve thought a lot about how to incorporate light into almost all the buildings.
Monday, we’re heading to New Orleans to see Tulane. Those were the tickets that set us back the most since Tulane didn’t bother to send us a financial aid package for weeks. On the other hand, I will eat well on Monday and Tuesday.
And then Kenyon the week following. But they are reimbursing us for the miles and getting us a hotel room!
Guess which college I am hoping he picks?
6 Likes
Back home from a long and tiring admitted students day. Everybody crammed into a truly gigantic ballroom on the top floor of the U of A student union. It took quite awhile for us to get from the parking garage to the student union thanks to D26’s knee scooter, so we arrived just before things started. It was standing room only. At least a couple thousand people in the huge ballroom.
Nobody offered to give up their seat to my kid. We sat on the floor against a side wall instead. We now have newfound respect for anyone who has to navigate sidewalks with a wheelchair or scooter all the time. Lots of uneven surfaces and she almost fell over a few times. By the time we got to the student union, D26 was pooped.
Opening presentation included an appearance by the pep band and the college mascots. Right after the initial 30 min presentation, everybody was to go to a 90 min presentation put on by their respective colleges. We skipped that because it was too far for D26 in her knee scooter. Instead, we shopped in the bookstore. I got D26 a t-shirt, wrist strap, & a keychain ID-holder/small wallet thingy.
They gave everybody cards which were good for $13.50 of free food at any of the eateries on campus, so that was pretty nice. We used our free food coupons to have a sit-down (like table service with a server) lunch at Cork & Craft in the student union. Food was good. And we learned that you can use an $11 swipe to eat there. D26 thought that was great because there’s a couple of things on the menu there that she really liked.
After that, we went to the old gym (sorry, my bad, the Bear Down Gym) for a student resources fair. There were also campus tours going on and other things to do, but we skipped the campus tour because…scooter + we’ve been on the tour twice already anyway.
Lots of tables there with people to answer questions on everything from A to Z. Got a lot of pamphlets with info + free stuff, including a box of Narcan at the campus health table, a free luggage tag from Housing & Residential Life, free pens, and this cool fidget thingy from the tutoring center (called the “Think Tank”), which I’m probably going to give to my neurodivergent niece when we see her this summer.
D26 refused to wear the name tag provided her. Also refused to wear the cute “Future Wildcat” button that they gave all the students. She said, “Are you kidding me? It screams ‘tourist.’” Hey, you think that your middle aged mom carrying a tote bag that says “Arizona” on it doesn’t say the same thing? 
Learned that there’s a place on campus that brings dogs every Mon from 2-4 pm. Every other Tues afternoons, there’s kitten there to pet, too. D26 loved that idea, is going to visit there during the school year.
Student union has a honors student lounge which honors students can access any time. Student resources fair also had a table about foreign language placement, so D26 got a question of hers answered there. They were really helpful.
1st floor of student union has a campus free food pantry. Students can visit it 2x/week. Everybody gets a certain # of free points to spend there. It’s meant to help with student food insecurity. You do not have to apply in order to go there. Just have to show student ID card and no questions asked. I love that this is available.
There’s also a free professional clothing/interview outfit closet in the student union, open for 3 hour stretches 3 days a week. Meant to help students out who can’t afford to buy an outfit for a job interview. I love this, too.
D26 got invitation from the honors college to go to the honors village open house, so we went there after the student resources fair. But I wised up and picked D26 up after I (without the child) walked back to the car and got it from the parking garage. Then drove over to honors village building, unloaded kid & scooter out of car, then drove to other parking garage, then walked back to honors village. If you’re tired from reading that, yes, so am I. LOL.
Honors village tour was short but sweet. Tour guide was really nice. Learned at front desk that they have vacuum, broom, mop that you can borrow to use. So that’s great. Don’t have to buy a vacuum (not all college dorms have them to check out at front desk, D24’s does not). Honors village is only dorm on campus with dining hall right there in same building, so that’s a huge plus. Right across walkway is ‘north rec’ (aka the other main gym/rec center on campus other than ‘south rec’). In 1st floor of North Rec is a smoothie shop, which sells chocolate milk shakes. So D26 can carb up after working out. 
Honors village dorm is definitely a little walk from rest of campus, but D26 found this to be a positive thing instead of a negative. Feels it’ll help her focus more. From a mom point of view, the fact that there’s food downstairs in the same building is a huge plus.
Everywhere on campus is cash free, so that was annoying.
Textbooks are $275 single price for all of your classes per semester. That’s less than I spent on textbooks on average in college!
There’s this ‘Campus Care’ healthcare buy-up program you can purchase. Meant to be used for students who do have health insurance but maybe you have a high deductible plan or the local healthcare in the area is out of network for you. We do have a high deductible plan, so will be purchasing this. $175/semester. Includes no copays for a lot of different types of visits, services, etc. This will likely save us $$ on any urgent care-type of visits if D26 gets a sinus infection or something like that.
Hung out with my sister afterwards. Took D26 to her favorite ramen place before we headed home. She’s in bed asleep now. Super long day! Glad we went. The weather was lovely today.
11 Likes
D26 made her decision on Friday, Syracuse here she comes! She’s excited, she already added her post to the class Instagram page and is planning what she wants to wear for college shirt day and his she wants to paint her uniform skirt for her last day, so all the important stuff.
Now she’s happy to be able to relax and enjoy her spring break. And I’m definitely happy for the end of our crazy travel spring. Between all the college visits that were a plane flight away, work travel, and the spring break trip that was originally supposed to be last summer I am ready to just sit by the lake at home all summer. The sticker shock of buying plane tickets for all these visits has me happy she decided on a college in driving distance and that we have one electric car.
Mahjong and pickleball are definitely the hobbies of choice around here. I also started learning violin recently. For fellow Suzuki parents/students I’m up to Etude and I love how all of these songs are still in my whole family’s memory from D26’s violin days in elementary and middle school.
D26 also kept taking off here name tag at GW like she didn’t think having her mom with the GW tote and the fact that we didn’t know where anything was would tip people off that she doesn’t go there.
So happy for everyone on here making their choices and getting excited. Good luck to everyone still deciding. Here’s to enjoying our new hobbies!
22 Likes
Sometimes. Google “Minnesota Nice”.
If they dont like you, they won’t say it directly. But yes, most are super friendly.
1 Like
We are also in full on prom prep countdown. And the good thing is: I learned a LOT from last year! I have the appointments made, the tricky items (size-wise) sourced waaay in advance, and now am busy dropping seemingly-casual hints about photos and dinner/after prom plans. Your D26’s gown sounds amazing. I hope she has a magical time.
1 Like
Yay, congratulations! And hooray for a driving-distance school! I have one college kid who is a 2-hour flight away and one who is a 2-hour drive away, so I was overjoyed when my D26 picked a school that was 45 minutes away, lol. It definitely makes things easier.
Our school has the same tradition of painting the uniform skort – it’s the same day as college shirt day, they wear the shirt plus paint a giant logo on the skort, typically. Mine is planning to use an iron-on patch of the logo, and then paint a school color inside the pleats, lol. Another day that week they tie-dye the white uniform polo and wear that. My D26 was tie-dying last weekend instead of grinding on her giant STEM project that’s due this week. These are definitely the important things! 
I also related to your new violin hobby – my kids all took piano lessons for many moons. I played through middle school and quit and have always regretted it, so I’m slowly finding my way back now. Although, it’s been a nutty year for us, so it’s more like I have concepts of a plan to find my way back, lol.
4 Likes
Thank you! She’s for sure not going to look like any other kid, lol. (I have a perfect 6-second video of her twirling in it, but I don’t think I can share video here?)
24 Likes
I LOVE HER GOWN SO MUCH!!! Dramatic, elegant, a fairy tale come to life. 
3 Likes